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Sunday, January 24, 2010

At my Cindy McCain post last week, new commenter Carolyn Ann somehow conveyed the message that it's okay to be attacked as a "teabagger," especially if you're a conservative and you criticize hardline leftists as "neo-Stalinist" (which is, by the way, what they are). That's fine, though, since I'm trying to have an argument according to deep principles and political theory, and Carolyn Ann's arguing off emotion and hysteria. Still, it seems to me that when it comes to expectations of decency and fundamental rights, leftists -- and that includes folks all the way at the top of the media industrial complex -- have some really dreadful double-standards.

I did indeed use the term “teabagger” on the House Floor during the debate on HCR 18. I know nothing about any sexual connotation attached to the term but I do know that the term is widely associated with the anti-healthcare movement. I used the term because everybody knows who I’m talking about when I use it. There was no intention to derogate members of the so-called “teabagger” movement. My intention was only to satire the fact that the Missouri House spent an entire legislative day debating a non-binding resolution telling Congress that we are against a bill that is still in the process of being written. I make no apologies for pointing out that the Missouri House could have spent it’s time talking about more important issues overwhich the State Legislature has some control.

Thank you for writing,

State Rep. Jeff Roorda

Interestingly, while claiming ignorance on the grotesque meaning of the sexualized gay-slur, Representative Roorda still refused to apologize.

And that's to be expected, considering how mainstream "teabagging" has become to those shocked by the political power of the tea party movement. As Meryl Yourish points out, the Associated Press put the term in quotation marks in an article citing "tea-bagging" activists:

The fact that they put the epithet in quotes indicates that they know full well that “teabagger” is a vulgar term. I never knew it existed before the so-called objective media types (we mean you, Anderson Cooper) were calling Tea Party activists “teabaggers.” It is a deliberate insult. It is not the way an objective news organization should describe the millions of Americans from all walks of life who attended rallies and town halls to protest the expansion of government by this administration and congress.

But leftists somehow continue to dodge the vulgar meaning of the slur, pointing to MSNBC's lying hatemaster Rachel Maddow as "evidence." But no one's fooled by such rank hypocrisy. Last year, when Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi attacked Michelle Malkin in his essay, "Teabagging Michelle Malkin," he left no doubt the meaning leftists assign to the term:

I have to say, I’m really enjoying this whole teabag thing. It’s really inspiring some excellent daydreaming. For one thing, it’s brought together the words teabag and Michelle Malkin for me in a very powerful, thrilling sort of way. Not that I haven’t ever put those two concepts together before, but this is the first time it’s happened while in the process of reading her actual columns.

Previously Michelle Malkin’s writing was on the edge of unreadable; she’s sort of like Ann Coulter, only without that tiny fraction of P.T. Barnum/Mick Jagger-esque self-promotional flair that makes Coulter at least vaguely interesting ....

Now when I read her stuff, I imagine her narrating her text, book-on-tape style, with a big, hairy set of balls in her mouth. It vastly improves her prose. See for yourself ...

So, there's really no doubt. But if conservatives were to attack Obama backers with similarly derogatory sexual slurs, you'd be hearing yowls of "raaaaacism" faster than you could say Jeremiah Wright!

2
comments:

I remember when the Tea Party movement really started taking hold early last summer. Politicans had just gone home for their Summer break, not expecting what was to take place when they held their townhall meetings. People were disgusted with their politicians. They were disgusted with Obama's thoughtless spendiing. So they voiced their opinions all over the country. When the politicans returned to Washington, it was Obama who got the anti-tea party revolt going by the left. Obama speaking at a hand picked townhall meeting, waved his slick fingers as if he was holding a teabag, and insulted all of those who had been voicing objections to all the backdoor policies that were coming out of Washington. Since then the left has called the teaparty folks the mob. The more the left has bad mouths the people, the more fired up they became. So I say keep on trying to smear the teabaggers. November isn't that far off. They won't forget who has been badmouthing them. They will be voting hard and heavy. When the dust settles, those who trashed the tea parties will be drinking their own tears of defeat.

I say embrace 'Teabagger' and take the term away, make it our own as Blacks took 'nigger'. Years ago, folks could really send me into a rage by calling me a cripple and they would delight in it. When I took that word for myself, they had no more weapon.